A while back I realized that if I kept creating goods at my current pace (a byproduct of needing to busy my fingers while watching tv), I’d soon become a hoarder, or that friend who only gives gifts she’s made. So I picked up hand embroidery–a craft I hadn’t touched since I was very young. It’s incredibly labor intensive and slow going, so I knew the production line would slow its pace, plus I’ve been really inspired by modern takes on the ancient craft that have been popping up on the Internet in the last few years.

I’m not one for following patterns. Or recipes. Or direction of any kind, aside from my GPS… And even then…

Anyway, one of those cross stitch kits from the craft store was definitely not going to be for me. I knew I wanted to create a starfish entirely from French knots—the texture would be perfect—so I drew 5 lines radiating out from the center and got started!

A French knot is one of those things—like knitting and reformatting a hard drive—for which I always have to rely on YouTube to provide a refresher course. Here’s a great tutorial (skip the first 30 seconds).

I picked my colors at random—I already had a couple skeins of the vibrant poppy in the center of the star and knew I wanted to work my way out to something more muted to tie in to a chair we have in our living room. Not having a pattern meant many trips to the craft store, sometimes just for one skein, but sometimes I need an excuse to get out of the house these days anyway.

Some of the legs are a little crooked, some are a little bulgy, and the overall shape certainly isn’t a geometrically perfect star, but I like her and she adds the perfect touch. These days she’s happily keeping watch over our living room, right next to the window that looks out over the ocean!